Always Camera Ready: How She Helps the City Wake Up.

She's interviewed thousands. Now she's the one being asked.

What does it take to be the voice a whole city wakes up to?

What does it take to be warm and steady before the sun comes up, every single day, for forty years?

We hear from the anchorwoman who has spent four decades telling Cincinnati's stories, and who is finally telling her own.

Sheila Gray is the host of Good Morning Cincinnati on WKRC Local. She's a member of the Ohio University Broadcasting Hall of Fame, a magna cum laude Scripps journalism grad, and a fixture in the community through Pink Ribbon Girls, the YWCA Career Women of Achievement, and a Key to the City. 

In this conversation, we talk about what it actually takes to be publicly cheerful on privately hard days. 

Sheila reflects on what her mentor saw in her before she saw it in herself, and what thousands of interviews with accomplished people have taught her about who they really are once the camera stops rolling.

We get into what her reporting reveals about the quiet challenges families aren't talking about enough, what separates a story that truly connects people from one that simply informs, and what she's noticed people rarely say out loud even when their lives are public. 

We also talk about what Cincinnati still understands about belonging that bigger, faster cities have forgotten, why the people who hold everything together for everyone else are so often the ones nobody checks on, and what local television still knows about trust that national news and social media have lost.

After four decades of telling everyone else's stories, it turns out the best one Sheila had was her own.

Watch the podcast on YouTube.

TIMELINE:

1:21 — Career origins: from West Virginia reporter to Cincinnati morning anchor

2:25 — "Sheila energy": bringing warmth and consistency to work every day

4:04 — Building trust and storytelling with genuine care

7:45 — Losing her father young and how grief shaped her values

10:06 — Choosing kindness over bitterness through hard times

11:06 — How celebrities and public figures behave on camera vs. off camera

15:15 — Balancing facts with human connection in interviews

24:39 — My mentor on finding the human story

30:02 — How news consumption and media trust are evolving

37:34 — Cincinnati culture and identity (Skyline Chili, goetta, community spirit)

CONTACT SHEILA GRAY:

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CONTACT DR. ARDESHIR MEHRAN:

Dr. Mehran Studio

LinkedIn

Podcasts 

Blogs 

YouTube

Bestselling Book

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're not depressed. Just unfinished. This is the podcast for leaders, high achievers, and entrepreneurs who have built impressive lives on the outside, and yet sense something is dying on the inside. If you ever stared at everything you have accomplished and felt strangely empty, this show is for you. We're gonna go backstage today. For over four decades, in the city of Cincinnati, at 2 30 in the morning, one woman gets up, dresses up, puts her smile on, and gets on the air. Through her presence, she welcomes the city. She smiles and tells the city it's gonna be a great day. She's done that for four decades. How she does it? What is her story? That woman is Sheila Gray. She's a number one ranked award-winning anchor woman hosting Good Morning Cincinnati WKRC Local 12. She is the wife of Rick and mother of four. She does this with four kids. God bless you. She's an Ohio native. She spent four decades doing broadcasting. She's known for her warm, composed, and trusted style. She's an alarm clock for the city of Cincinnati. So, Sheila, welcome.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Thank you, Artishir. It's so nice to talk to you again. I'm glad to see you. First of all, I haven't been doing mornings for four decades. I've been in broadcasting four decades, but I actually started out as a general assignment reporter in West Virginia. And I was there for more than 10 years. And I worked my way up from a street reporter to an anchor woman on the main newscast at 6 and 11. And I was actually the first woman who did the 6 and 11 newscast at my station, WSAZ, full time, who wasn't just filling in. So that was a big accomplishment for me. And then I came here in 1999. So I have been waking up with that alarm since 1999 and hopefully waking up every day with a smile on my face.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

That's right. I see that. I wonder how she does it day into day. Actually, that's a question. Let's just start with that. So I worked in a corporate environment for decades. So you go to work, people show up with different styles. Like some people are happy, some people serious, some people are grumpy. You have a style, you bring energy. How do you do that, Sheila?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Well, part of it is maturity because I will tell you, from the time I was a tiny kid, I would always come in a room like, Ta-da, I'm here. Aren't you great? Aren't you glad that I'm here? That's what my relatives tell me. The show is about to begin. So the fact that I can show up calm now, definitely because of maturity. Because when I started at Fox 19 here in Cincinnati, I had done, I had been a serious news anchor and a serious news reporter. And I had done a lot of feature things too. I did a little bit of everything, but I was so excited to do a morning show because I knew I had a personality to be awake in the morning and to have fun and do interviews and cooking segments and things like that. And I just remember somebody telling me after I had been at my news station for a few weeks, there was a weather man named Dave, and he was incredibly professional. He works in Denver now. And he asked someone, is she really that happy every day? I had to learn to not talk to Dave until he was there for about an hour because he would drive down, he'd get his coffee, he'd wake up, and the minute he hit the TV, bam, he became fire. I had to learn not to give my Sheila energy before he was ready. So everybody is different, especially at three or four in the morning, if that's when you're showing up to work.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Right, that's right. Sheila energy, I love that. So I've been reading about you and I've been watching your programs. Two images come to mind. You're a storyteller, and actually you've been told your storyteller, and you create trust that I can trust her. I listen to her, I believe in what she says. How do you do that? Because there are people you listen on the news and says, No way, I'm not listening to you. But there's a way you come across that brings the level of trust and telling a story.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

I think because I truly do care about the people in the stories, yeah, even if I haven't met them, and I care about the people who are watching because they are our customers, they are with us every single morning, so they know us. You cannot be on television and not be genuine because people can see that. So I have learned over time, I really have to be myself, but at the same time, I have I feel responsibility for people to not know how I feel about an issue or a politician or something like that, because that's not my job for people to know. My job is only to tell you the facts, yes, and tell it with some perspective if I have some, if I have some knowledge about a situation, provide perspective and compassion. We had four tornadoes in Cincinnati this week in northern Kentucky and Cincinnati. So you need to treat those stories with compassion. People have lost their homes, they're worried about their kids, their animals got loose, things like that. So, most of all, I really just care about people, and then that makes me care about their stories, and that builds trust because people know I do care.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

The story of that. So, bringing the story to you. So you ask thousands of people their stories. What is one or two things you want people to ask you?

SPEAKER_02 6:33

I've never thought about what I wanted anyone to ask me. I think most of the time I just love talking about my family, or I love talking about special people that we've covered on our show. But personally, I feel like I'm an open book, and people do ask, how do you wake up that early in the morning? Are you really this happy all the time? I I can't think of anything in particular that I want people to ask me because I feel like people ask me everything, especially social media. You kind of have to be an open book, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Yeah. The reason I asked that in throughout my career, maybe because I brought this sense of listening, sense of respect, whether whether you're my age, younger, older. People would, it was almost I expected it that sometime during the week, people would say, Arish here, can I meet with you? Come to my room, close the door, and then they would tell us stories about themselves, about their life, their position, office drama that they wanted to share, but then the door would open, we go out. It was private. Oh, okay. So I came to realize almost there is a private part to you you share with the trusted few, or sometimes nobody hears that, but everybody says, I mean, somebody asked me that. So Sheila, I'm gonna come back to that question.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Oh, you know what? If that's what you're if that's what you're coming at, I can tell you that I lost my dad when I was nine years old, so I grew up with a great deal of grief. And I came from a family where you weren't talking about that all the time. Back then there weren't counselors for kids to deal with trauma. That was a childhood trauma. And I can see in my life how that shaped certain decisions that I have made. But I, in a positive way, it's why I value relationships so much because I lost my dad and I miss him every single day. And it's why the relationships that I have, my friends and my kids and my husband will tell you they always know they're valued. Nobody leaves this house without saying, I love you.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Because you don't know if that person's coming back. And I have people think I have this perfect life. I have a mom who's 89 and she needs a little bit of help. And as you mentioned, I have four kids, and there are times in your life when you have kids, they get they're the priority. And some days moms want to be the priority. Who's taking care of me? You know, so it's not that I want to be asked about that, but I think those are the things that people don't think about when they're seeing you out at a fancy restaurant or on the news or something like that. Everybody has a real life and real problems and struggles, you know, during COVID-19 when I had to come home from work every day reading about people dying literally hours every morning. And then now my son needs help with school. Yeah, I had to get some therapy. Yeah, because that was really hard.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

So I everybody has hard times. I'm open about a lot of mine because I think everybody had those experiences during COVID. Everybody has lost someone, yeah, and that affects their lives. And everyone has grief that they carry that never goes away. So if someone asks, I'll share it. So you ask.

unknown 10:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Does that answer the question? It does, and thank you for being real and sharing that. You went through hard times, hard times happen. The motto that I have I experienced hard times, but I don't have to be hard with others around. I don't have to be a jerk, I don't have to be dismissive. Agree, agree wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

And don't you know people who are? Yeah, because they haven't either processed it right or they're blaming some. I you're the psychologist, they're blaming someone there. I I think you make choices about how you walk in the world.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

That's right. That's right, that's right. Thank you, thank you. So the years ago, I was watching a documentary of Johnny Carson. I love Johnny Carson. You know, legendary late like that. He was had such a style. So there was a document about him that he had favorite guests. There are guests, he would talk about that. How dismissive, rude, and he had very colorful language about certain guests. And then but on the camera, they all looked great, having a conversation, was rich, but then there was a different thing. So in your world, when the camera stops, the people you interview, especially people, celebrities, more influential, what are they like?

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Most people are extremely nice and down to earth. The funny thing is, the only people that I've interviewed, and this was years ago when I was at Fox 19, and you would not know who these people are because people sometimes get a little bit of fame and it goes to their head, and they come in and they think they deserve some certain kind of special treatment that the production people need to get them a water, or they don't say they only say hello to the the show host or people like that. But for the most part, the famous people, whether it's Cincinnati famous or big famous, I was able to interview George Clooney and Johnny Ben, Pete Rose, and Sparky Anderson and Anthony Munoz and those people, John Glent, Senator John Glent, U.S. astronaut, those people come in and they say hello to everyone.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Because everyone is equal, not you know, the person behind the camera is equal to the person in front of the camera. And they know that somebody is a fan of them. And the thing that struck me about George Clooney, I was so nervous when I interviewed him because I am a huge fan of his, and I actually know his mom and dad because they live here, and his dad was a famous anchor man in Cincinnati. And but I was more nervous talking to him than anybody else, but he just was a regular guy. He talked about the Reds and Joe Knuxall and playing jokes in high school and being disciplined by his parents and things like that. Most people are they're just regular people that we just know who they are. I've I haven't been treated badly by many. There was one famous civil rights leader who was different on camera than he was off. And I don't think I want to say who it was, but but it was during a contentious time in town where we had some things happen. And I think that they were performing and they weren't interested in just being a regular person off camera.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

But for the most part, I've had good experiences.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Let me digress for a second. Before you go on the camera, do you have certain exercises to get ready, your vocals, your presence, all that? Um because you don't oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

I want to mention you how do you do that because when I was starting out, I always read everything and marked up scripts and everything and took a lot of time to do that. And I I had this ritual where I would mark up my scripts and I would go get my makeup on and I would always brush my teeth because I felt like I spoke better if I bring it up.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Mark up your scripts like that. That's what I do for you, huh?

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Like that. Yes. I've been doing it so long, and we're on the air for such a long time now, five and a half hours every morning.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

That my thing is I get in there, I figure out what we're doing, I drink some coffee, I get some makeup on, and I edit scripts. And then I'm usually only about a half an hour ahead of where we are on the show. So I don't have any like crazy breathing exercises or anything like that. I it to me, it's just the same as doing this. I'm just on TV talking instead of talking to my husband in the family room or something.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

This is great. So when you do a story, there are interviews that uh you listen to them, they are very informative. You get facts, you get uh details, and there are interviews. People feel a sense of connection, feel a sense of hope, sense of warmth. How do you uh find your way between facts and also that brings the connection, the humanity to the story? How do you do that?

SPEAKER_02 15:43

I think the biggest thing is just listening to people because sometimes you'll interview someone that you know or someone you're familiar with, and sometimes it's you just found out about it that morning. But I think the big thing to me is trying to make people feel comfortable, yeah, let them know that I'm not out to get them.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

There's no gotcha. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

No, I always tell people if they're a little bit nervous, I just want to make you feel good. I want to make you look good. And it's just like we're talking in a lit, like in our living room, forget the cameras are there. And I know that's easier for me to say than to do. But the other thing too, people just want to, they want to talk about themselves. They want to talk about the good things they're doing. And I try to listen to people and then think of what would the viewers want to know?

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

I recently did a story with a woman from Brazil who emigrated here and she wants to become an American citizen, and she joined the Ohio Army National Guard to speed up her American citizenship. And I said, Why do you want to do that? Why do you want to put yourselves in harm's way? Why do you think it's so great to be American? Because I think sometimes we forget how great it is to be an American. Yeah, and that really resonated with a lot of people who watch that story.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Why she appreciates what we have and what we're able to do here more than maybe we do sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

That that is so great what you mentioned. The in pure fresh air radio. I love Terry Group.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

She's one of the best interviewers anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yes, and um whenever I'm driving, I get a chance to listen to her. I remember years ago, she said what interviewers, interviewees want to know, especially people of influential, they want to be understood and making sure their point of view are heard and inquired about correctly. That's to your point, people don't want to get surprised, they don't want to come from different angles. That as long as you provide ways that people can explain themselves and be respectful and be heard, so the interview will go smoothly.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

It seems that's what's I also think it's sometimes it's the way you ask the question because sometimes we have to ask hard things, yes, but you can do that respectfully, you can respect someone's humanity and they know you're gonna ask the question, but you have to, if you say it with respect and dignity, yeah. Sometimes they still won't answer, but sometimes they will because that you did it with kindness.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

That's right. Good. So let me put you on the spot, Ms. Gray. So what are the questions you want to be asking, but for whatever reason you hold back, you don't ask.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

I guess it depends on who it is. Yeah, just I think some yeah, I think probably if you get too personal into people's lives, like if it's a marital problem or a loss of a child or something like that. And sometimes people are in there raising money for a foundation or something in honor of a child they've lost. Those are the things I don't like to ask, but sometimes we have to.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

I I'm open, I really don't have a problem asking any anyone anything. Luckily, on morning shows, we don't have to do a whole lot of interviews about things that are controversial.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

But I mean you we've interviewed the mayor and the police chief and people like that on the morning show, and you you have to ask them what voters want to know or what residents want to know, and you just have to ask it like any other person that they would see on the street that's gonna ask them.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

That's right. So thinking about your city, your community. What are the stories about people, about their lives, about the daily events that you feel needs more coverage?

SPEAKER_02 20:02

I think we luckily we find a lot of those. I love stories about when one person has found a way to change someone's life. For example, we had a we I didn't do the story, our reporter Marella Porter did it, but it was about a man who had a hobby repairing bikes and he would just give them to kids. And so then when people started finding out, they would bring their bikes to him and give them to him, and he would donate them to more kids, and it just turned into this big thing where he's giving kids freedom because a bike is freedom. I love stories about people who do one little thing. One of the stories I did years ago about a woman named Rachel DeRocher, she wanted healthy snacks for her kids and she couldn't find them in the store. So she came up with a recipe for something called grateful grams. They were different types of gram crackers.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Yeah, different types of gram crackers, and she started making them in her house. And then she moved to an incubator kitchen thing that she rented, and she would have a baby on her backpack, and her other kids were there, and she was baking these things, and they ended up getting picked up by Kroger, which is a huge grocery chain based in Cincinnati, and then she turned that little business into a collective. So she now runs an inner incubator kitchen where other people like her get their start. She has a women's conference every year inspiring women entrepreneurs and even women who stay home with kids to find their gifts and feel good about what they're doing. Because some people don't think what they're doing is important, but everything everyone does is important to someone. And so I I love those stories. I love people who are who just tried something simple because of a need, and then all of a sudden it blossoms into something much bigger. And yeah, it's fun to interview famous people too, but really the people who are helping others are the really good stories that I like.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Yeah. Sheila, how do you find the stories, people or the nuggets within the stories? Give you an example. People who know me, they say you have a canny ability to figure out what people are not talking about.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 22:41

And that's your job, right? That's my job. And then I say that with there, there's a topic here, there's an elephant in the room, and somehow we are avoiding talking about this and not going there so gently, quietly, respectfully, always respectfully. What do you think about this? So, how do you figure out where's the juice, the essence of the story? How do you do that?

SPEAKER_02 23:07

A lot of times, like I said, it's just listening. Like something they will say, yeah, well a light bulb will go off. But sometimes, if you just think about any person, let's say I'm interviewing you, you I know that you grew up in another country. So I would naturally probably ask, what kind of challenges or struggles did you have? Because now you're here. So that was a choice somewhere where whether it was your choice or your parents' choice or whatever. I know you have a wife, depending on what we're talking about. You've been married how many years? What makes a good marriage? What advice do you have for people? Because it's marriage is work. So artistshare, what you know, what are you doing right, or what have you learned? You always have to be the wrong one. That's one of the I think when you just know a little bit about a person, you can go in different directions.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Exactly. And in fact, yeah, when I was starting my podcast, I was getting a lot of recommendation about influential people who have books meaning TV, and I I told them that yes, but to me, everybody's a star, it just and everybody has a story, fascinating story, as you said, is the quality of relating, connecting, and bringing their story to view that that's what you do every day.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

I also like to ask people who influence them, yeah, because sometimes you can learn a lot from that, yeah. But thanks. I so sometimes I don't even think about how I do it anymore, so it's interesting to delve into this because yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

You mentioned Jim Reeder that he saw in you a storytelling capability, talent. Tell us who is Jim and what did he see in you?

SPEAKER_02 25:13

So when I was in West Virginia, I worked in television at WSAZ, and I was a general assignment reporter there. And I remember when I started reporting, I was so new to it. And a thing that this happens to a lot of young people when you're just starting out, you just you just want to get your story done. You're just writing it like a chronological order or writing it like a little book or whatever. And but he, I think he saw something in my personality that he thought I would be able to talk to people easily and get people to tell me their stories. And because of that, he thought that I could humanize stories. And he he had worked in some bigger markets and just loved West Virginia. He and his wife were both journalists, and they decided that was where they wanted to stay for the rest of their lives. And he just talked about how you could take the smallest little thing that someone is doing, and like you said, telling stories. You can find something interesting in it.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

So, for example, some of the stories I did in West Virginia, there was a guy in the Department of Natural Resources, and he was uh an animal expert, I forget what his title, biologist, something like that, naturalist. This guy was in charge of tracking the black bears in West Virginia because their population had gotten real low. So nobody knew who this guy was. I went out with him for a couple days when they were tagging bears out in the woods and the mountains and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

I think if you like you look for small things, there was a woman, an artist who decorated Ukrainian eggs, like the old style where they do the wax and the paint and things like that. And Jim freeing me up to do stories like that that took a little bit more time, he was able to help me develop, like really getting at the humanity of people. And then that it almost tells the story itself.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

If you just don't, it's not a cookbook, it's not a formula, it's not a recipe, you can't go into it with this is what I'm gonna do, and it's gonna turn out like this. It's never gonna turn out the way you're gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

It's the real story in the context of that.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

You have to be open and let it take you where it takes you.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

And he taught me that. He taught me that. I think he just saw a smart young woman who had a big personality, and I was a pretty good writer. I think those are basically what he did. And he thank God for him. He's he has passed away. He was a couple of years ago, maybe last year. He was a dear friend my whole life. He taught me so much, and he was a great person. He and his wife both were just they were excellent journalists, and they cared about the community, and they stayed in the community that they cared about the rest of their lives.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

It seems the gift he noticed in you, it was the gift of noticing, paying attention. The story usually is not man went to the moon, just happened right there. People live cooking, pay attention to that and see the uniqueness in that and tell that story.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

Yeah, and you can't be sitting there thinking about well, what am I gonna ask next or where am I gonna go? You you have to be, it's such a lesson in being in the present moment, yeah. Which as I get a little bit older, I'm trying to do more in every aspect of my life. Like, yeah, if you're like if you're with a toddler, you gotta be in the present moment. If you're doing a story, yeah, you gotta be there. You can't think about what you're gonna cook for dinner that night or where you're gonna go, what story you're gonna go do next. You gotta be there listening and present.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Yes, that's right. That's right. The thing with that, I want to ask the question how are you changing every day and what you're learning? And here's the context. Given my work and all the credential PhDs, etc. I have after my name. People said, Artigier, you have it so figured out you know everything, and I tell them, no, that's not the case. I learned every day, I learned from every client, every encounter. I learned that worked, that didn't work. I need to learn about this year. So I'm changing every day, I'm getting hopefully better every day, and I'm very open about it. So I thank my clients. That didn't work. Can we try again? I just learned something. What are you learning about you, your profession, that says, Hey, I just learned a nugget.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

The biggest thing that we're learning is how people are consuming media and news differently. Yes, it's evolving at an incredibly fast pace.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Like I can remember when everything was on tape, then it was on digital. Now people are getting news on their phones and not watching a television screen. I'm old enough to remember when there were three television stations from which to do.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

I remember that too.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

I remember when you had to wait until next week to see the next episode of a television show, right? So what I'm learning professionally is how to keep viewers engaged, yeah, how to stay relevant, how to, I don't know, how to stay engaged myself and not get just completely overwhelmed with feeding the beast. What is gonna work? What are people gonna wanna see? What do they want to watch? Because everybody can turn on a Cincinnati newscast and there are a certain number of stories they're gonna see on every single station, right? But are they getting are they watching it from people that they trust, people that they like, and people that have a little bit of fun and like each other?

unknown 31:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

So I think we're just we're all trying to learn how to keep that going. Because we don't want to be new how newspapers were 15, 20 years ago, and nobody's reading most of them anymore. We don't want to turn out like that. So what and also I worked with a lot of younger people, and it's great because they can give us different perspectives, and the world is changing in terms of what people what people do and don't tolerate. And I the thing that I just try to learn is how can we make somebody's life better? How can we be kinder? Because that's our job too.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

That's right, that's right. The thing you're mentioning. I love your perspective. That so news is everywhere in almost all devices you have. What I'm finding, what I pay attention to is who do I trust? Who do I trust, both in terms of what they share, but also how they show up, their level of sometimes you see people talk about information online, they haven't figured it out, but they're real about it. So when I was watching your programs, is about I I don't know if there's a research about that in the from your station, but people trust in you. I know Sheila, I know where she comes from, I know what she stands for, and this is what she's sharing because people at the end of the day they follow the person.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

And we do try to be like if we don't know something, we just say we don't know. Yeah, it's okay for a journalist to not know all of it. You're you're going through, and people do like that transparency. They like to see the process now. Back in the day, you picked up the newspaper in the morning and you read what was in there and you put it down, and that was it. Now, people like to see you posting, you're going to. I was out at the National Guard. I posted, hey, I'm at the National Guard, I'm getting this. And or if there's somebody's following tornado damage, they're gonna they're gonna take the viewer along before they put it on the news that night. And I think people I think they do feel part of the process if they are seeing it, I think they feel part of it.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yeah, yeah, that's right. The curiosity question, maybe the this is just for artistships answer, is that waking up at 2 30 in the morning when it comes weekend, do you sleep late or is it has it become a habit for you?

SPEAKER_02 34:36

I still always wake up around 2 or 3, yeah, but I do go back to sleep for a little bit. But there are some weekends I can't make it past 4 30 or 5, I'm just awake. Yeah, but I do, and I know that's everyone says it's not healthy to do that. You should try and get up this, but I'm like, no, it's Saturday. I am not getting up at 2 15.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

Exactly. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

But it's hard to stay up, it's hard to go out on Friday or Saturday night and stay awake. If I'm at home watching TV, probably 8 30. I'm like, okay, I gotta get a bit. I can't, I can't keep myself awake.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Exactly. The something about Cincinnati, I know you and I have had this conversation. I'm here right now with you, right outside San Francisco. My wife went to the University of Cincinnati. We have relatives to Ohio, Cleveland, Columbus, and in Cincinnati. So I'm biased for Cincinnati. So when we travel at least once a year to Ohio, and uh especially Cincinnati and Columbus, there's a sense of community, there's a warmth, you can feel it. We go down the street, you meet people, versus when I in San Francisco, before that, my wife and I lived in New York City, those are big metropolitans. There's something unique about Cincinnati, and you feel it in your heart. So am I making this up, or is it really for people over there that just feel a sense of community?

SPEAKER_02 36:10

No, I think you I think you're absolutely right. I think people who live here love living here, they're proud to say that they live here, yeah, and they know everybody has a special thing about being here, whether it's ghetto was invent invented here. Do you know what geta is?

SPEAKER_00 36:30

No get it. Education time.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

And they put it in all kinds of stuff, and there's a whole festival for ghetto this weekend. But people who live on the west side, a lot of them never leave that west side. They love that west side, they love saying they're from the west side. They say west side is the best side, and then people who are northern Kentucky. I know people who live over here in northern Kentucky who never cross that bridge and go to Cincinnati because they love being in the bluegrass, the bluegrass, the horses, the bourbon, the bluegrass state. I think you're absolutely right. And I think the the thing about it is it feels like a small town. Yes, it's a city, it's a metropolitan area. We have everything a city has. We have pro sports, we have Broadway series, we have the ballet, we have the symphony, museums all over the place, fine dining, incredible chefs, but it still feels like a small town, and people love it. People love it here, yeah. And people want people to come here and love it too. We want people to come here, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

So, this is we come to parties the the celebration and uh the advertising for Cincinnati. I need to talk about this, that the there is a that the experience, dining experience in Cincinnati and in Kentucky. It's called the Skyline Chili. So when I tell that to my colleagues, friends on East Coast Best Cup says, What are you talking about? Chili's chili. So no, you need to you know taste it. So it's a it's it's like a uh what if it a franchise that they make most amazing family secret chili that the it's just wonderful. You so whenever we travel the basically through Ohio, basic there are times lunch and dinner is the skylight to the state. You get it for both, exactly. I miss it. You said we ordered like the packages sent to us, but it's the experience, and I tell my wife, but my retirement, I want to bring the franchise of the skylight to California.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

It will be do you think it would do you think it would go in California?

SPEAKER_00 38:57

It would go amazing, it will go crazy, and I'm surprised nobody's done it. You know, tell the the listeners about what is the skyline all about.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

So Skyline is there were these Greek immigrants. I'm not sure of the timeline, but like probably in the maybe I want to say like in the 20s or 30s or 40s, these Greek immigrants came here and they made a chili that's known as Cincinnati-style chili. Now, the first people were not Skyline, it was it was some other restaurants in town, and it basically it's got Mediterranean type of spices in it, so it's got like a cinnamony flavor. Some of the versions have a chocolatey flavor, and it's not like Texas style chili, like big, thick with beans and stuff in a bowl. It's just meat and sauce, it's thin, like a thinner sauce. Nice, and they put it on spaghetti. Yes, and they a lot of cities have chili dogs. We call them conies here. A lot of cities have that, but not too many chilies put it on spaghetti. That's right, and then you have all the different ways you can have it. You can have a three-way with sauce and cheese and onions, you can have a four-way with mustard, you can have a five-way. I forget what's on a five-way.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

I always look for five-way, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

I just like a cone and they put this much cheese on the top, yeah. But Skyline is the most famous one. That's beautiful because they have just perfected it and they they have locations all over the place. Yeah, and there, but there are a whole lot. There's Dixie chili, there's Camp Washington chili, there's blue ash chili, there's gold star chili, and people will get in a fight over their favorite Cincinnati chili. The skyline is the one that when people come home, yes, they have to have the skyline. And when we a lot of times we'll have people come through in the Broadway series and the national tours, yeah. First thing they do, they gotta get their skyline chili and their graders ice cream.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

That's another thing. I remember that. So for listeners, I'm not hired to buy Skyline to do advertising. This is really from the heart and from experience. So when I was dating my wife, then going to the University of Cincinnati, I didn't have much money. All my money was going to tuition. All I could afford was Skyline.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Oh, so there you go. It's part of your fabric of your life.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

That's exactly. So the as we're getting closer to our wrap-up, what questions, what dimensions of Sheila still needs to be brought forth that we haven't touched upon yet?

SPEAKER_02 41:53

I think you you sort of touched on it earlier when you talked about how you choose to behave in a certain way, you choose to be bitter, you choose to be mean. I I had a hard time when I was becoming a young woman being not with thinking I had to be strong all the time.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

I think because that's what my mother mirrored to me growing up after we we lost my dad. She was so strong, Artist Shir. I never saw her cry. I always, so I am a very strong person. But I think what I and I'm a very accomplished person, and I'm a very competent person, and I'm a great leader, and I I own all those things because I love what I do and I love coaching people, I love helping young people learn. But I think what I really want people to know is that it's okay to be vulnerable, yeah, it's okay to ask for help, and really there's nothing more important in this world than kindness. Yeah, the world needs kindness, the world needs love and it needs selflessness. Yeah. And I, if I want anyone listening to takeaway, just think of other people and put yourself in their shoes and know that maybe they're having a bad day and that's why they were stiff or mean or short with you, and just try to be kind.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

That's right. And when people are mean, it's not about you, it's about the part of them they're hurting. Yes, you don't have to start to get into a cat, you just stay in your grace, in your kindness, yeah, and be a role model for them. When people come to me, one of the first things they look for is that environment that they don't have to be certain ways, act certain way. Just who are you? What are your hearts about? What are the choices? What are the feelings you have to deny or ignore? It's just finding yourself again. So I love what you mentioned that you're accomplished, you're a leader, you have a sense of I've done this, I love it, and I choose to be nice, I choose to see you, the way you ask questions, the way you bring people in, your listeners, your people you talk to says, she's listening to me, she is making me starve for five minutes. That's lovely. Well done, thank you, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

The interviewer sometimes is the best story itself. Paying attention to that and bring that person into the fold. Hope this was helpful.

SPEAKER_02 44:46

Thank you so much, Artishir.